Caeleste
by Posthumous Immortality
Summary: A simple walk in the forest leads to so much more. (In other words, Leo meets a girl that's out of this world). Alternate Universe. Leo x Sakura.
1. Chapter 1

**A six-part story.**

 **Vague inspiration from Rapis-Razuri's** _ **Feathers on Snow**_ **from the (verywellwritten)** _ **Blossoms & Brynhildr **_**collection, in that this started as another folktale adaption. I don't know what it is now. Help what have I done get me out**

 **This was supposed to be done over four weeks ago, but then I had exams, and then I hit a wall, and then [bad joke]. It's still not complete, actually, but I'm putting myself on a timer to get this done before it drags out for three months again.**

* * *

 _1-1 . Dancing._

A pretty pink-haired girl, appearing to be just over the cusp of adulthood, spun and twirled her way elegantly through an ethereal garden. There were clusters of beautiful trees bearing fruit and flowers, and tulips, violets, and lilies growing nearby in bunches. Koi fish swam in clear blue springs, and glittering gems lay far beneath the surface of the water. She laughed, a sound reminiscent of the wind rushing through leaves, as small animals came out from underneath the bushes and scampered past her feet.

"Don't stray too far from the garden, alright?" came a voice from the distance.

"Okay, Mother," the girl called back over her shoulder. Her pace slowed to a walk as she left behind the busier sections of the grounds. The diverse flora and fauna of the garden never ceased to amaze her, but her absolute favourite place to be was the tops of the cliffs. Whenever the clouds cleared up, the view below her was breathtaking. Endless grassy plains, winding rivers, and dark forests dotted the landscape. Admittedly, it wasn't nearly as vibrant as her home, but the sharp contrast still captured her attention time and time again.

She sat down, kicking her feet out over the edge. Sometimes she wondered what it would be like to go down there.

* * *

 _1-2 . Falling._

Leo needed to clear his head. He could never sleep immediately after one of his evening study sessions. There was just so much information to soak in that rest was as far from his thoughts as possible. In the morning, certainly, he would regret this late night, but in the moment he was borderline giddy as his mind processed all that he had just learned.

Books were his guilty pleasure. There were so many better ways that he could be spending his hard-earned money, but the scholar inside of him could not resist. Sciences, mathematics, history, _anything_ that Leo could get his hands on, he would absorb as soon as he could. After he taught himself how to read at the age of eight, he had become obsessed.

As he got older, he realized that his childhood dream of becoming an academic in a far off city was not at all possible as a rural-born young man destined for a life of hard, physical labour. But that didn't stop him sending off for copies of manuscripts, papers, and journals with whatever extra funds he had each month.

The night was quiet, save for the chirping of crickets in the distance. The moon had already peaked and was slowly edging towards the west. Out in the open, there was nothing for Leo to fear. Any animal that came close changed direction at the sight of his burning lantern. He was walking along a rough dirt path that gradually wound its way into a grove of thickening trees, when a gleam, far above him and moving too fast to be a star, caught his attention.

It was a faint white streak, slowly getting larger as it seemingly fell from the sky. Before Leo could even wonder what it could be, the light extinguished suddenly, and a dark shape plummeted into the forest below.

"What in the world..."

Curious, he picked up his pace, and moved deeper into the wood. One of his previous readings came to mind as he jogged. Meteorites were fragments of rock and metal that fell to earth in a blaze of light. Personally, he didn't believe the outlandish idea that they were lost belongings of heavenly beings, but there wasn't a better explanation he could find.

The foliage started to become much more dense, and the path narrowed, but Leo was undeterred. He ducked and wove his way through, taking care not to trip over errant branches. For a good five minutes, there was nothing. And then he found _her._

A slender young woman, maybe even just a girl, as it was difficult to judge her age, was sprawled unconscious in a shallow depression just off of the path. She was garbed in a mantle of white silk, with a blouse of similar material, a red skirt, white leggings and strange sandals. Her shoulder length pink hair was secured by a white headband. Her head faced towards Leo, and her eyes were closed. Somehow, she managed to look graceful, even while blood leaked from a narrow laceration on her forehead. Tiny scratches peppered her arms from where she had come into contact with bits of rock scattered throughout the grass.

All thoughts of searching for the meteorite were forgotten as Leo cautiously approached the the girl. Her chest rose and fell steadily, as though she had simply decided to take a nap on the ground. In actuality, she had probably tripped, hitting the side of her head hard on the ground and knocking herself out. Her injuries didn't seem to be life-threatening. Still, the blood oozing from her forehead would likely attract the attention of certain animals, and she clearly was in no shape to defend herself. Leo knew what he should do.

She seemed to be eerily light, even for someone so thin, but perhaps his increasingly sleep-deprived mind was playing tricks on him. Awkwardly holding his lantern by two fingers and the girl in his arms, Leo began his walk homeward.

* * *

 _1-3 . Meeting._

He set the girl down on top of an old bedroll. With a cloth soaked in cool water, he began to gently clean the smattering of cuts across her skin. Despite his best attempts not to wake her, she stirred slightly as he next dabbed alcohol on her forehead wound.

The blond man cautiously sat back on his heels. After shifting around fitfully on the rough cloth for a few seconds, the woman relaxed again, shrinking back against the bedroll, soundly asleep. Leo kept a watchful eye on her face as he completed his ministrations by wrapping a clean length of linen around her head, over the largest laceration.

Carrying someone such a long way in his arms, and treating her injuries, not to mention the fact that he should have been sleeping when instead he was doing those things, had sucked out the rest of Leo's energy. He hazily stood, and stumbled off into his own room, barely remembering to change his clothes before falling onto the bed.

As always, he rose the next morning in time with the sun. To his surprise, his unexpected guest was also up, looking around the main room of his house in bewilderment.

"I see that you're awake now," Leo said casually, as he walked in, rubbing his eyes.

"Uh, um... Who a-are you? Wh-wh-where am I?" she stuttered in reply.

"My name is Leo. This is my home," he responded, gesturing to his surroundings. "I found you lying unconscious and injured in the middle of the forest at night, and figured that waking up surrounded by wolves would not be a pleasant experience. Just how did you end up like that, anyway?"

The girl's face scrunched up in confusion. "I... honestly can't r-recall what happened."

"Well, where do you live? It has to be around here, right?"

Her face now began to display a bit of panic. "I d-don't know. I c-couldn't even take a guess as to w-where I am right now."

Amnesia. Leo had read about the condition a few months ago. It was often caused by a physical injury to the head, like the one he had treated just a few hours ago, that resulted in a concussion. Usually it was temporary, but sometimes it was permanent. "Then is there anything that you do remember? Anything at all?"

She was lost in thought for a few seconds, and then perked up. "Y-yes. My name. I-it's Sakura."

* * *

 **Word choice is a bit of a mess. Some parts were written or edited weeks apart and out of order, so the style will be inconsistent. Also plot holes, there will be many.**


	2. Chapter 2

_2-1 . Search._

There wasn't a single person who knew her. The nearby town was tiny, with only about a hundred or so residents, along with less than fifty people in the surrounding farms, but it was also the only civilization for days by horse. Leo found it impossible to believe that nobody was looking for, or even recognized, his companion, but it was though she had just popped into existence out of nowhere.

He could sense Sakura becoming more nervous with their continued lack of success, and he found himself getting increasingly frustrated as well.

"Maybe you were passing through the area and got lost. Once someone realizes that you've gone missing, they'll retrace your route and find you," Leo heard himself saying to her. But he knew that he was being overly optimistic. They were in the middle of the grasslands, far from any major trading road. The chance of his idea being true was almost zero.

"M-maybe. But until then, I don't know what I'm going to do," she murmured sadly. "I guess I could l-look for a job, and see if anyone would g-give me a room..."

"You could stay with me. I have a spare room that you could sleep in, and I wouldn't mind having a someone to help me out," Leo offered immediately. He didn't really know why he so quick to offer her aid. Was it sympathy for her plight? Empathy, because he understood how it felt to be virtually alone? He honestly couldn't tell.

Sakura, surprised by his hastiness, took a step back and pulled her arms close to her chest defensively. "Th-that's kind of y-you to offer... But I don't w-want to impose on you more."

Leo knew immediately that he was being a little overzealous. If his sisters were here, they'd scold him (loudly) for potentially scaring her. He took a breath. "Really though, it would be no trouble to me at all."

"Oh. W-well, if you say so..." She gave him a short bow; it was a strange, out-of-place demonstration of respect that he had personally never seen very much. "Thank you."

* * *

 _2-2 . Horses._

Leo showed her the stables first, and Sakura took to the horses immediately. She tenderly stroked the nose of a nearby chestnut mare, and then ran the fingers of her other hand through the short haired mane. The animal affectionately nuzzled her palm in response.

"Are a-all of these yours, L-Leo?"

The blond man reached into a nearby basket, withdrawing small, dark orange carrot and allowing the horse to crunch on it enthusiastically. "I breed them, but most of them are reserved by other farmers after birth. They leave me to raise them for a few years before taking them to work on their own lands."

There was no immediate reply from Sakura. "Is there something wrong?" Leo asked after a few seconds.

"It's just that... D-don't you feel a little sad sometimes? B-because you're raising these horses from birth, putting so much time into them, and then after while, they're just g-gone?

Leo stared at the dusty wooden floorboards as he considered her strange question. "Well, this is my livelihood. Perhaps this isn't what I intended to do with my life, but it was the one of the few opportunities that presented itself when I was forced to make a choice." He looked up to face Sakura. "So no, I don't really feel sad about giving them up."

She was quiet for another moment. "W-well, do you s-sell all of them?"

Leo continued down the aisle, gesturing for the pink-haired woman to follow him. "No. I have a few that I would never let go of." He stopped next to a dark grey stallion with a white blaze on his forehead and three stockings of a matching shade. "This is Brynhildr. He's getting on in years, but he's far and away my favourite."

"Hello there, Brynhildr," Sakura whispered quietly to the stallion as she reached up to scratch behind his left ear. She received a soft whinny and a shake of the head as a reply. Turning back to Leo, she asked, "W-would you like h-help feeding all of the horses?"

"Yes, most definitely." Leo walked over to a stack of barrels containing a mixture of grains. "It should go faster with two of us. Besides, I think that some of them are already getting rather attached to you."

* * *

 _2-3 . Flowers._

Sakura found the flowers by herself one afternoon, while Leo was cleaning out the stables. As she lacked the appropriate clothing, he had insisted that he muck out the stalls by himself. Despite this, when he returned to the house just before sunset, he found her on her knees in the soil of the flowerbed, pulling weeds and crumbling dry, dead leaves into the dirt. They were geraniums, if he recalled correctly, planted by his younger sister before she left for another part of the country. Leo usually watered them during dry spells, but otherwise paid them little attention.

"Um, what exactly are you doing in my garden?" he inquired slowly.

"I'm taking care of your flowers," Sakura replied casually, without slowing in her work at all. Leo noted silently that her stutter was gone. "They looked so sad and neglected."

Suddenly, she realized who was behind her and jumped up, turning to face him. "U-um. I pro-probably should have asked you first, r-right?"

"I don't really mind. I was just surprised, nothing more." Leo looked left and right at the now cleaned up flowerbed. "I'm not too keen of a gardener, anyway."

"I was w-wondering if I could take cuttings to grow more and give them to the townsfolk. I didn't see m-many flowers when we went there the first time." She tilted her head to one side, pink bangs shifting with the movement. "Do you think that they w-would appreciate the pretty colours?"

The local soil was notorious for being difficult to cultivate crops in. There was no pattern, no understandable science to be found behind it. Some years, the harvest would be plentiful, other years it would fail completely and starvation was inevitable for some. Leo's own mother had fallen sick during one of the tougher years and died before he could remember much about her.

The blond man was struck by Sakura's generous instincts. "They would find it difficult to not accept such a gift. You can try if you'd like, but it's a challenge to grow anything but grass and clover consistently around here."

However, when he checked on her progress a few weeks after, cut stems had multiplied across the garden, and dozens of tiny leaves and buds poked out of the soil. Despite what he had said earlier, she appeared to have had zero problems.

Leo, impressed, studied her work with interest. "I think you have a natural talent for this kind of thing. Not even my younger sister was this successful."

Sakura shied away from his praise in embarrassment. "I just got really l-lucky, that's all."

* * *

 **Have you ever had a weird feeling of dread that you just couldn't get rid of? Also, when I said that there would be plot holes, I was kidding. Plot holes by definition require plot of some description.**


	3. Chapter 3

_3-1 . Morning._

The two of them slowly settled into a daily routine after a handful of months. Feeding, watering, and brushing all of the horses took the pair until midday. If not tending to the garden, Sakura usually led the horses out to graze by herself in the afternoons; for some inexplicable reason, the animals naturally gravitated towards her, and neither her nor Leo could figure out why. The blond man, meanwhile, was finally able to work on other tasks that previously he would have been too tired to make progress on. Planning for new outbuildings and repairs to existing ones were finally possible.

Their morning rituals were also set in stone before long. Leo was naturally an early riser, and after changing into his working clothes, drew buckets of water from a nearby well. He then meticulously checked his food stocks and tools, ensuring that nothing was missing, damaged or taken by rats. Try as she might, Sakura wasn't able to rouse herself at sunrise, but she still managed to be up and alert by the time Leo finished his own routine.

One cold and wet morning, Leo found that he had long overslept. A rainstorm during the early hours of the day had clouded up the sky, and only an hour after dawn was the sun beginning to appear from behind the clouds. As he hurriedly entered the central room of his house, however, he noticed something different.

"Good m-morning, Leo," said Sakura, looking back at him from the wood-burning stove. She was stirring the contents of a round metal pot. "I n-noticed that you were still sleeping, so I did some of your chores and m-made some breakfast f-for us to eat. H-hopefully it turned out alright."

With a carved wooden spoon, she scooped out two bowls of warm, golden-brown oatmeal. Leo retrieved a pair of utensils for the two of them, and placed them on the table before sitting down. Sakura joined him across the table, glancing apprehensively down at her concoction.

"I'm sure that it will be delicious," Leo reassured her. "Thank you, by the way. It's nice to have a change like this every so often."

The pink-haired woman looked puzzled by his statement. "What do you me— Oh, you don't n-normally eat breakfast? It's supposed to be the most important meal of the day, and you're l-leaving it out?" she scolded.

Leo brushed aside her concerns. "It's not a big deal. I've been skipping the morning meal for years now with no negative consequences."

Sakura put her hands on her hips, frowning. "That's not a h-healthy habit to have, Leo. In fact, from now on, I'm going to make food every m-morning so I can be sure that you've eaten something!"

And so she did, despite Leo's insistence. That day forward, he had a much later start in the morning than before, but it didn't bother him as much as he thought it would.

* * *

 _3-2 . Healing._

The wound didn't appear to be that bad, but he definitely didn't want to find an ugly infection the next day. The culprit, as always, turned out to be Zola. Sometimes Leo wondered why he hadn't gotten rid of the bad tempered and consistently disobedient gelding yet.

Blood dripped from the back of his hand and down his fingers as he strode back to his house. The midafternoon sun was partially obscured by dark clouds, but the day was still warmer and drier than most.

As he passed by the garden, he saw Sakura, as per usual given the time of day, tending to the flowers that she had miraculously coaxed into growing a few months earlier. Whenever the two of them made a trip to town since then, she brought along with them some of the mature geraniums in pots, and tried to give them away to the shopkeepers they dealt with there. To her surprise, the majority of the intended recipients were willing to pay her for the beautiful blossoms instead. This led to several amusing, for Leo at least, back-and-forths in which Sakura insisted that the merchant take the flowers free of charge, while they countered by giving discounts on the pair's purchases.

Leo intended to just slip past her into the house, perhaps muttering a quick acknowledgment if she noticed him, and then to clean and dress the wound before returning to his work. Instead, as he walked by, Sakura turned her head to greet him, and quickly zeroed in on the bleeding horse bite on his right hand. She set her tools down immediately and stood, brushing the dirt from her leggings.

"Were you b-bitten by one of the horses?" she guessed, gently drawing his hand towards her in order to closer inspect the wound. "Let me b-bandage it for you inside."

He shook his head. "I can handle it myself. Thank you for offering, though."

The pink-haired woman released Leo's injured hand and instead began to pull him by his other one towards the door. "I insist. I don't w-want you to make it worse by doing it incorrectly."

It wasn't often that she was so determined in getting what she wanted. "Well, if you say so."

Inside the house, Sakura washed her hands and began sterilizing bandages over a pot of boiling water. She then used a cloth damp with cold water first to wipe away the blood, and another with dabs of alcohol to disinfect the bite.

The burning sensation from the liquor was a mild discomfort, but admittedly, Leo enjoyed the feeling of being cared for. It had been many years since anyone had been around him so often, and now with Sakura, he realized how much he missed having someone around all the time.

"I think I'm n-nearly done," the woman in question pronounced after one final examination. "Now, just w-wait here while I get the bandages."

She returned shortly with a pair of dressings on a wire net. She laced Leo's fingers between her own to keep them steady, and with practiced ease, wrapped the cloth strips diagonally across his palm and the back of his hand.

"Th-that should do it. M-make sure that you keep it clean, and then you'll be fine."

"I'll take my leave, then. Thank you." As he stood up to exit, Sakura's soft voice interrupted him.

"U-um. You're still h-holding my hand, L-Leo..."

Indeed he was. The blond man glanced down at his right hand, which still tightly grasping Sakura's. She was blushing, and Leo was certain that his face was mimicking hers in colour.

"My— My mistake," he said awkwardly, immediately letting go.

"I don't r-really— It's— I-I have to go!" she mumbled in a rush, as she stepped past him. She gave him a clumsy and hurried bow before pushing open the door. "J-just be m-more careful!"

Leo watched her leave, scurrying outside without looking back at him. All of a sudden, he didn't feel as motivated to continue working, but he also knew that he would regret wasting more time. He still had to to corral the last few horses back to the stables, and repair some of his more battered equipment before the sun set.

However, when he unwrapped the bandages the next day, with the intention of changing them, Leo noticed that the wound had already almost completely healed. New skin, red and raw, took the place of what were bloody bite marks eighteen hours prior. It was though his hand had injured a week ago, instead of a day.

"That's odd," he muttered to himself. He would have liked to search for mention of such a phenomenon in his small collection of medical papers, but he just didn't have the time yet. And by the time he finished his normal day of work, all evidence of the wound had disappeared, and so it went forgotten.

* * *

 _3-3 . Singing._

 _I don't know much about your life beyond these walls_

 _The fleeting sense of love within these god-forsaken halls_

A soft, melodious voice floated past Leo's ears. He looked up from his current manuscript, the memoir of a commander in the Second Nohrian-Chevois War from seventy years ago. It was evening, his preferred time for studying.

 _And you can hear it in his voice in every call_

 _This girl who's slept a hundred years has something after all_

The song had a strange resonance within him, even though Leo was sure that he had never heard it before. He pushed back his chair and got to his feet, intent on following the sound.

 _I'll go alone_

 _And never speak of you again_

 _We depend on you_

 _We depend on you_

On the veranda was Sakura, leaning on the railing, her shiny pink locks blowing in the night breeze. A lit candle sitting in round brass candle holder sputtered beside her. She was facing into the darkness, and, lost in the music, didn't hear Leo step out behind her.

 _And though I know_

 _Since you've awakened her again_

 _She depends on you_

 _She depends on you_

 _She'll go alone_

 _And never speak of this again_

 _We depend on you_

 _I'll depend on you_

Leo stood there, transfixed. Turning away from the wind to brush errant strands of hair out of her eyes, Sakura noticed for the first time that she had an audience.

"Oh, g-g-good evening, L-Leo. I didn't r-realize that y-you were here. Did I interrupt your studies? I'm s-so sorry!" She quickly lowered her head in apology.

Leo hastily waved off her words. "Ah, no, I don't mind. I just heard the music, and was wondering where it was coming from, that's all. You, ah, have a very beautiful singing voice."

"Th-thank y-you..." she replied, not meeting his eyes.

"Do you remember where you learned that song?" Leo inquired. "I've never heard anything like it before."

"I still... can't r-recall much. I just know the words and nothing else. I'm-sorry. Although..." Sakura's voice trailed off, and her eyes became unfocused. She began mouthing words, completely engrossed.

"Hm? Were... Were you going to say something?"

Her eyes lit up, and she looked at Leo thoughtfully. "I think... I think th-that the song is a duet, a-actually. W-would you like me to teach y-you the other part?"

It was Leo's turn to be uncomfortable. "I don't think that I have a talent for music, unfortunately."

The girl gave him a playful frown; an expression that he had never seen from her before, but still something that he found rather endearing. "It's not th-that difficult, Leo. Just repeat after me, okay?" She grabbed his arm to keep him from turning to go back inside. "Is there any harm in trying?"

Leo found himself caught up in Sakura's enthusiasm. He knew that he wasn't musically-inclined at all, but her eagerness was infectious, and he couldn't resist. "I'll try, if you insist, but it's not going to turn out well..."

The night air was soon filled with two noises: Leo's out-of-tune attempts to sing, and Sakura's poorly suppressed giggling.

* * *

 **That's probably not how you bandage someone's hand, but my FA qualification is like four years old now, so I have no clue.**

 **Song is an excerpt from Porter Robinson's masterpiece,** _ **Sad Machine**_ **.**


	4. Chapter 4

_4-1 . Family._

"D-do you have any family members that live nearby, Leo?"

"My mother was dead long before I could remember much about her. It was a combination of malnourishment and giving birth to my sister that killed her, I think. As for my father..." Leo paused, grimacing as he thought back to his childhood. "He died of consumption, a breathing problem, we were told, but to be honest, he wasn't... right in the head towards the end. I'd... rather not talk about him, if possible."

"Oh. I-I'm sorry that I brought it up in the f-first place. What about siblings, then?"

"Well, I have three. I'm the third-born. We were inseparable when we were younger, but after both of our parents died... By the time we realized that we were drifting apart, it was too late to salvage our relationship completely. As soon as he was of recruitment age, my brother, the eldest of the four of us, joined the military. My older sister took care of the rest of us for a little while afterwards, but eventually she found her calling running an orphanage in a town about a week's ride away from here. My younger sister married the love of her life and they moved across the continent to a city by the coast." Leo glanced at Sakura sideways. "What about you? Is there anything you remember about your family?"

"I th-think that I have three siblings as well. I can see their faces, but I can't quite recall their n-names." Her face fell, eyes glassy. "Wherever they are, I h-hope that if we meet again, they can forgive m-me for disappearing on them."

Leo looked away uncomfortably. It certainly hadn't been his intention to make her upset. Suddenly, Sakura threw her arms around him and pressed her face against his shoulder. He could feel his shirt becoming damp where her tears had come into contact with it. A quiet sniffling sound was coming from her. Slowly, Leo wrapped his own arms tightly around the crying girl, and whispered into her ear.

"It would be hard for anyone to stay mad at you."

* * *

 _4-2 . Stars._

One clear night, after all of the day's work had been taken care of, Leo draped a cloak over Sakura's shoulders and wordlessly motioned outside. Not far from the pasture was a grassy hill that was the highest point on his property. The two sat in silence, staring up at the black ocean filled with shining pinpricks of light forming an endless array of shapes and figures.

"You know... s-sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be one of them," said Sakura quietly. "A star, I mean. Looking down over the world from so far away..." Her voice trailed off.

They remind me of you, Leo thought. Bright, amazing, beautiful things that I will never get sick of seeing.

He was in love with Sakura. It wasn't some shocking epiphany, like the ones written about in idyllic, romantic ballads. He came to the conclusion in a very calm and matter-of-fact manner. He looked away from the stars and glanced instead at the person beside him. What did he want to do?

 _He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her._

In that instant, Leo suddenly became so overcome with giddiness that he didn't notice the wistful expression on Sakura's face as she stared into the sparkling night sky.

* * *

 _4-3 . Proposal._

As the two of them taking the long walk from town one day, Leo noticed Sakura checking and rechecking the horse-drawn cart full of supplies they had bought earlier in the day.

"Did we forget something, Sakura?"

"Yes. No. Um..." Her face turned slightly pink. "I m-mean, I thought that you were buying some more books this month, that's all."

Leo found himself incredibly interested in his bootlaces. "Oh. I've been saving up for something else for a while now."

"Really? Wh-what are you planning on buying, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Nothing... too important."

There was an uneasy silence for the rest of the day, for two very different reasons.

It was Leo who broke it first. The sun had set, and and each was preparing to turn in for the night. Normally, he would avoid directly confronting his shy companion, but the tension in the air combined with a lack of unnecessary communication between the two was bothering him.

"Sakura." Leo placed a hand on her shoulder, and the woman turned around to face him. He found himself almost... _annoyed_ by the distance from which she stood from him. The gap was large, as though they were just casual acquaintances. "Something has been troubling you since the afternoon. Care to tell me what's wrong?"

She fidgeted, not meeting him in the eyes. "Leo..." she started slowly. "Am I a bur-burden on you? F-financially, I mean?"

Leo was taken aback by her words. "What—"

Sakura continued, "I kn-know that I'm n-not as helpful with the horses as I could be, and I'm n-not contributing much either just by selling flowers." The rest of the words came out progressively faster. "And now you're trying to s-save money by not buying books, and I don't know why and I think that it's because I'm taking up r-resources that you could otherwise use for your studies." She caught her breath for a second, while Leo gaped at her wordlessly. "I-it's exactly as I s-said, isn't it. D-do you want me to leave you be, L-Leo?"

Hearing his name snapped Leo out of his shocked daze. "No, that is the last thing that I would want!" He paused, reaching into his pocket and taking his own deep breath. "This definitely isn't how I imagined doing this, but..."

He got down on one knee and opened a small square box in his left hand. "Sakura. I'm afraid that I've fallen deeply in love with you. Will you do me the honour of becoming my wife?"

It wasn't the hilltop surrounded by a glittering blanket of stars, nor was it the garden of flowers that Sakura had so carefully cared for. But Leo had gotten the words out correctly in one go, and that was good enough for him.

Sakura's maroon eyes widened in surprise, and then began to shine with happiness. "I— Y-yes. Yes, I will."

She timidly reached out with her left hand towards him, and Leo slipped the polished gold band onto her fourth finger.

In that moment, he had never before felt less alone.

* * *

 **Confessing your feelings and then immediately popping the question, feelsfireemblemman.**


	5. Chapter 5

_5-1 . Nerves._

The entire day was a blurry, hazy mess for Leo. He stumbled out of bed into the main room of his house one morning, drowsily wondering why Sakura wasn't around. The kitchen was clean, and the basin completely dry. No water had been drawn from the well since the day before, and the room she normally slept in had the door wide open, and was devoid of life. Then he remembered that she had arranged to stay at the house of a local family for a night, because—

"We're getting married. Tonight."

They had planned for a simple ceremony, in the late afternoon, at a tiny shrine on the outskirts of the nearby town. The only attendees were to be the priest, and his family. Sakura, of course, had no family members of her own that she could locate. Leo, meanwhile, didn't keep close contact with any of his siblings. The amount of time it took to exchange correspondence was long, given the area's isolation, so he didn't even bother trying to tell his siblings about his impending marriage.

On the day of, Leo was to tend to his horses and finish his other chores beforehand, alone, while Sakura occupied her time by assisting her host family in their daily routine. An old, and in his opinion, pointless, custom dictated that he was not to see his future wife on the day of their wedding until it was time for them to be married. Sakura had insisted that they follow through on it, however, and Leo had reluctantly conceded the point. Honestly, given how their relationship had unfolded over the past year, mostly contradicting "traditional" boundaries and such, he couldn't care less for the superstition.

Time seemed to drag on forever in the early end of the day, with Leo only working half-heartedly. His mind was playing out the event that was now only a few hours away, over and over again. He says his vows, and Sakura would say hers. He would kiss her—something that he had never done before, to anyone— and then they would be married. As the afternoon dwindled away, he found himself thinking about it more. Too much. He was feeling nervous. Lost. Scrambling to get anything done, and for the first time in recent memory, he felt like he couldn't handle everything that was going on around him.

Leo sunk to the ground, back against the cobblestone outer wall of his house. His hands clutched his head, and his breaths were long and shaky. Bile clawed its way up his throat, and he had to resist the urge to retch.

"L-Leo?" a voice called. Perhaps just a mad hallucination brought on by his panic. "What's wrong?"

The light of the sun blinded him temporarily as he looked up, but he could not mistake the slender frame of Sakura, standing in front of him, her eyes lit up with concern.

"Sakura?" he asked hoarsely. "What are you doing here?"

She knelt by his side, completely disregarding the dirt staining her clothes. "I just... f-felt like something was wrong, so I came to check on you, just to be sure." She gently intertwined her fingers with his, and looked him in the eyes. "Tell me what's happening, Leo. A-are you having... second thoughts?"

Leo exhaled another shuddering breath. "No, it's just that... I don't know what I'm doing. I guess that it's nervousness? I feel so powerless right now, and I'm just lost on what to do, and—"

Sakura placed one finger against his mouth, stopping his rambling instantly. "Shh. I'm here, and we can figure this out together, okay?" Without waiting for an answer, she reached forward and pulled Leo into a tight embrace. "There is nothing for you to be worried about."

The two of them stayed like that until Leo's breathing steadied. Unfortunately, he knew that they couldn't stay like that forever. He reluctantly shook himself free of Sakura's arms. He gingerly got to his feet, and offered a hand to pull her up.

"I thought that we weren't supposed to see each other until later?" he asked dryly, while the two of them, hand in hand, walked back inside.

She giggled softly. "Oh well."

Hours later, the sun was descending behind the rolling, grassy hills. Leo, staring at the ground intensely, shifted his weight from foot to foot on one side of shrine. The noise of footsteps, muffled only in part by the dirt, made his head snap upwards. In a borrowed white silk and lace dress, and with the wind gently sweeping her hair into her eyes, was Sakura. With graceful, measured steps, she approached Leo and the priest, taking her place across from her future husband.

Their vows were short and simple, rehearsed dozens of times by each of them in their minds. Not once did Leo's eyes look anywhere but at Sakura, her beauty radiating brighter than the slowly fading daylight. In only a few minutes, he was able to hold her in his arms and kiss her for the first time.

* * *

 _5-2 . Child._

As he opened his eyes one morning, Leo found himself staring at the sturdy outer stone wall of his house. There was nothing particularly interesting about the wall, but rather a problem with what was not there. He had gotten used to waking up and seeing Sakura fast asleep beside him, stroking her hair, and then slipping quietly out of bed and beginning another day of hard labour.

Instead, he was greeted by the noises of coughing and retching and the sharp scent of vomit.

"Sakura?" he asked out loud, bolting from the bed. "Are you alright?"

In the main room of their dwelling was Leo's wife of three months, kneeling next to a bucket. She turned her head towards the sound of the quick and heavy footfalls and saw him standing in the doorway.

"M-morning, L-Leo..." she said weakly.

"What happened to you, Sakura?" he asked again, moving to her side. "Why didn't you wake me if you were this sick?"

"I di-didn't think that it was a big deal..." she muttered quietly.

"Oh, Sakura..." the blond man said, exasperation in his voice. "You need to take better care of yourself."

She glanced away, her face reddening. "I-it's, um, funny that you say that."

"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow at that statement. "What exactly do you mean?"

"I th-th-think that I'm pregnant..."

From that day forward, Leo refused to allow Sakura to strain herself physically. He fed and watered the horses by himself, and, when making supply trips to town, made her ride in the cart and hauled the purchased supplies alone.

But he still couldn't stop her from tending to the flowers each and every day.

Months later, Leo proudly held his beautiful baby boy in his arms for the first time. Across the room, Sakura slumped over, clearly tired, albeit with a smile on her face. The midwife who had assisted in the birth was already gone, leaving the two of them—rather, the three of them—alone.

"He needs a name. I'm t-too exhausted to think straight right now. Do you have any ideas, Leo?"

The new father gazed lovingly down at his child, then up towards his wife. Already his mind was spinning with ideas, but one in particular stuck out. He thought of his first meeting with the amazing woman that he was blessed to call his wife.

"What do you think of Forrest?"

* * *

 _5-3 . Mother._

Soft, barely audible footsteps coming up the path pulled Sakura's attention away from the small, babbling baby boy in her arms. A tall, older woman, dressed in clothing that mimicked the style of Sakura's garments, and with long red hair, darker than her own, was slowly approaching the veranda where the new mother stood. There was something unnervingly familiar about the woman that Sakura just couldn't place.

"E-excuse me," she started, standing. "Wh-who are you?"

The woman said nothing, and instead reached forward to place her hand against Sakura's shoulder, who shied away immediately from the attempted contact, pulling Forrest closer to her chest.

"Do you not recognize your own mother, girl?"

Sakura inhaled sharply at those words. "Wh-what?" was all that she managed to get out.

"You really don't remember, then? Has it been that long? I am Ikona." The woman crossed her arms and glanced around at her surroundings. There was an obvious air of disapproval at the simplicity of the house, but also a tiny trace of shame and discomfort.

"I must admit that it took me some time to discover your disappearance. Time is... _difficult_ , after all. Only the constant pestering of your siblings made me realize that you had disappeared, a fact that I am certainly not proud of."

At this point Forrest had stopped his incoherent mumbling and was gazing up at his mother's increasingly distressed face.

"Wh-what do you mean by that? How can time be diff—"

Ikona let out a tiny sigh, and pressed the back of her hand against her daughter's forehead, the two making physical contact for the first time. And in that instant, Sakura remembered. Her life before meeting Leo. The brief moment of carelessness that led to her fall from the cliffs of heaven to earth. The beautiful garden and majestic palace where she lived. The names of her siblings. Takumi. Hinoka. Ryoma. Her blessing of immortality. She was a goddess, a powerful, far-reaching, uncontainable being. She had forgotten so much.

Sakura swayed in place as memories came rushing back to her. For over two years, the finer details of her life had been just out of reach. Nothing had solidified past hazy faces and faint voices. But now, it all returned.

"Now have you remembered? Then it is time for you to return home, with me, to where you belong." Ikona now laid her hands on her daughter's shoulders.

The implication of the words pierced the veil of shock that surrounded Sakura. "B-but... My husband. My f-family... I can't just—"

For the first time, the harsh expression on Ikona's face softened. "Sakura, my dear daughter. It's not healthy for you to form bonds with mortals. Like it or not, they will die eventually, right before your eyes, while you live on, untouched by time. I am sorry, but I cannot let this continue."

Sakura's eyes began to well up. Her nose began to run, and her voice, interrupted by occasional sniffles, shook with desperation. "P-please, I beg you. M-my son, he still n-needs his mother. He'll die without me."

Ikona gave a heavy sigh. "Fine. You may bring him with. I am not so cold-hearted as to let a child die for no good reason."

"Can I... a-at l-least say goodbye to L-Leo?" Sakura asked in a small, quivering voice.

"No, my child. It would be less heartbreaking for both of you if he believed that this was nothing more than a dream."

A blinding light enveloped the three of them. Some distance away, surveying his horses as they grazed serenely, Leo felt a migraine coming on.

* * *

 **Just when it couldn't get more cringey. It did. And will continue to do so. I feel physical pain right now.**

 **AFAIK no description of Ikona was ever given. As Ryoma is basically a palette swap away from being Sumeragi, I drew the conclusion (read: made up some bull) that Ikona looked similar to her daughters (because there are two of them) as opposed to her second son.**


	6. Chapter 6

_6-1 . Sister._

Elise crossed her arms with a huff. "Hmph. I come all this way to visit you, and you're not even happy to see me."

"I didn't ask you to come here, you know."

"You're still the same meanie that I remember," Her face took on a concerned expression. "Really though, Leo, is everything alright? You don't look like you've been eating well at all. And I can't think of the last time you've looked this... sad."

"It's... It's nothing. I'm fine." It was only that the past two years of his life had just been a vivid hallucination brought on by his unrelenting loneliness.

The day that Sakura and Forrest disappeared—rather, the day that he realized what a fool he had been—was not one that he tried to remember often. There had been an eerie silence when he approached home. When he last saw his wife and son, they were resting on the shaded porch, Forrest curled up in Sakura's arms. The little boy, only a few months old, wasn't talking or crawling at the time, and still spent most of his time with his mother, usually sleeping.

None of the candles in the house were lit, and the chair that Leo had dragged out early in the morning onto the wooden boarded floor of the veranda had disappeared. The house looked dark and unwelcoming, a cold, phantom breeze blowing past him as he stepped cautiously inside. Something was feeling very wrong to him.

There was no sign of the two anywhere. He searched all over, not just the main dwelling, but throughout his entire property. The deepest corners of the stables, the hilltops, the cellar, the groves of trees, the ponds, the pastures, everywhere. He found nothing.

With mounting dread, he returned hastily to the bedroom the three shared. Normally, he was respectful enough of Sakura's privacy to not go through her personal effects, but he discarded that principle without a second thought in sheer desperation. Opening the chest of drawers that he had handbuilt for her only revealed to him cobwebs, and a thin layer of dust. In fact, thinking back to his crazed search, anything that he had associated with either his wife or his son was gone or in disrepair.

It was the final straw for him. Up until that point, there were a number of possibilities that he was considering, but even he knew that it was impossible for anyone to see something in perfect condition one morning, only to return twelve hours after and observe dust, dirt, and the level of decrepitude that was before him without also having problems of the mind.

He didn't remember much after that moment. The next morning, he found himself lying on the floor, far from his bed. His neck was sore, and the dried trails of tears coated his face. For the longest time, he stayed there, ignoring every sensation of hunger, thirst, pain, and sound. It was only the mindlessness of his routine, ingrained into him after so many years, that eventually allowed him to function that day, and every day since.

Leo shook himself out of the deep recesses of his mind, and forced himself to act cheery in front of his sister. "Now, didn't you want to see the horses? One of the mares foaled just a few days ago."

"Oh yeah, let's go!" Elise began to run off in the direction of the stables, but stopped after just a few steps when something caught her attention. "I see that you've been taking good care of my flowers. Wow, they've grown so much!"

"I— Uh, what did you say?" Leo stared at the geraniums that his sister had planted many years earlier. It wasn't that he hadn't properly heard what she said, but it seemed so unlikely to him that it was true. Still, she was correct. The flowers had definitely spread dramatically since the last time he had observed them closely. But he didn't do anything but mindlessly water them during dry spells. Their change certainly could not be attributed to any natural cause. It was the work of her. Of Sakura.

Leo felt a rush of emotions. Relief, if it could even be called that, with the knowledge that perhaps he was not completely insane, but his sadness remained. So the last two years of his life hadn't just been some mad fantasy. Sakura had been real, but she was also gone, and with her their son, and he still didn't know why.

"Look at my flowers, silly. I didn't think that they'd be able to survive in this soil, but clearly you've been doing good things to them. I mean, who else could it have been?" Elise wiggled her eyebrows conspiratorially at him. "Unless, of course, you've found a special someone that you haven't told me about, hmm?"

* * *

 _6-2 . Sacrifice._

Out of the blue, a voice reached his ears. It was a masculine one, cracked and dry with age.

"So, do you plan on moping for the rest of your life?"

Leo was in the muddy yard in front of the stables, preparing thin, soapy water for rinsing out the stalls later in the day. It had been less than a week since Elise returned to her home near the coast. Despite her apparent naivety, her gauge of Leo's sour mood was on point, and she made him half-heartedly promise to visit her soon. How he would manage to do so, given that his horses required daily attention, was beyond him, but his youngest sister had never been a pragmatist.

His back was facing the unknown speaker, whose voice he just could not place. His father had died long ago, as had any relatives that he knew of. His only brother was deployed on a campaign in gods-know-where, and none of his casual acquaintances or clients would ever make the visit up to his home. Cautiously, he set down the buckets and turned around. The only living soul standing there was Brynhildr. A horse. His favourite one, sure, but still, a horse.

"Are you just going to stand there gaping at me like a dimwit?" came the voice again, seemingly coming from the horse.

Leo took a quick step back in shock, spilling the contents of one of the pails into the already soggy dirt. "Horses don't talk. And I was just beginning to think that I was sane again."

Brynhildr shook the short hair of mane; it was probably the closest thing to a shrug that he could muster. "Usually I can't understand humans. Perhaps insanity is setting in for both of us, my friend. Now listen up, because I feel like I'll only be able to say this once.

"Your mate, the one who snuck me extra hay for so many months, is a goddess. The goddess of spring, of vegetation, and of healing, to be precise. Her mother, the Divine Goddess Ikona, has taken her back to heaven. The place where she lived, before she met you. She stays there now, miserable, only able to muster the energy to tend to your child. I can take you to meet her, and by that I mean my hide can, taken from my dead body. Kill me, wrap it around yourself, and go to the hill at moonhigh."

The horse turned around, and began slowly trotting back into the stable. "One last thing. Thank you. It's been a good life, but more and more, my muscles ache and my lungs burn. I doubt that I would have lived to see another moon anyway."

As Brynhildr walked away, Leo snapped back into focus and ran after him. "Wait, what do you mean, she's a goddess? Why do I have to kill you? How do you know all of this?" He stopped in front of the animal and looked into his eyes.

The horse stared back at him blankly.

* * *

 _6-3 . Reunion._

A path of stars awaited him atop the hill. Without a second thought, Leo stepped on it and began to walk the seemingly endless road to heaven. On another day, in another life, he may have wondered about how such a road could exist. But not now.

As the nighttime air around him chilled, he pulled the horse hide tighter around his body. He felt a slight pang of regret as he remembered Brynhildr's final living moments. The faithful stallion's body had been buried by a grove of trees just off the path to the stables. All of this, he reminded himself, was for Sakura and Forrest. For his family.

Minutes stretched into hours, and then into what felt like days. Leo continued on tirelessly. As the sun began to touch the horizon, the world beneath him began to slowly fade away. Not from distance, but from what appeared to be magic. Clouds rolled in the block the final traces of the ground below him.

He suddenly found himself standing on solid ground. Behind him, a sheer cliff face with an endless drop. In front of him, a garden filled with a larger assortment of animals and plants than he had ever seen in his life. Dark red, purple, and orange fruits that he had never seen before hung from trees in an unending orchard. Colourful flowers rooted in dark soil dotted the landscape. There were formations of rocks, and pools of crystal blue water. Faintly, he could see moving shapes in the thick foliage ahead.

Leo followed a path deeper into the grounds. The birds, which had until that moment been singing their customary songs, fell silent as he passed by. What seemed initially to be a busy junction for passing animals was now empty. Only small rustlings in the nearby bushes gave away any sign that life had been there before.

The path widened into a clearing. Through the middle ran a gently bubbling brook, with a narrow wooden bridge arching over. On the other side stood Sakura, dressed in her customary red skirt and white blouse. Her pink hair was a touch longer than Leo remembered, but her face still had the soft, beautiful features that he recognized. She had a tiny smile, but even at a distance, he could tell that her eyes seemed sad. Held in one of her arms was a bundle that made unintelligible noises as she hummed a lullaby.

The sound of his boots on the wooden planks of the bridge made her look up. Without a word exchanged, the couple stepped towards each other, meeting in the middle of the crossing. Her hand reached forward to grasp his, and Leo felt complete again.

* * *

 **Actually a garbage ending, I know. There may be an epilogue if I can think of something within a week that isn't completely horrible, as the current ending leaves a lot up in the air (so for now you can imagine the ending that you want)**

 **Main inspiration being a Chinese folktale translated as The Weaver Girl and the Cowherd. Not a 1:1 adaptation. Other assorted references to movies/books/whatever that I have experienced that are subconsciously influencing the story's "plot."**


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry, I wrote an epilogue.**

 **I never really liked the ending to** _ **The Weaver Girl and the Cowherd**_ **. But if you do, turn back now, if you haven't already.**

 _7-1 . Goodbye._

A meteor had crossed the sky the night before. Fitting for a final goodbye, given what Leo had experienced the night he first met her. Of course, he had seen her, not a fiery piece of metal and rock, but that was besides the point.

"Mother? It's... time."

Forrest. Her beautiful son, and an accomplished tailor. His passion at a young age for clothing, specifically of the feminine kind, had caused conflict between him and Leo, but her husband had eventually accepted that nothing he could say would or even should cause their little boy to abandon his dreams.

"Of course. Just let me get the flowers."

Her son reached for the pruning shears. "Here, I'll help—"

"Grandmother?"

A young girl, only about six years old, her hair flowing behind her, came running up the path with speed, before catching her foot in a rut and tumbling to the ground.

His clothing fluttering as he moved, Forrest was quickly cut off by Sakura, sudden burst of energy allowing her sweep the girl up into her arms.

"Are you okay, my dear Leona?"

Completely unfazed by her fall, the dark-haired girl nodded happily. Her shoulder length locks matched the colour of her mother's, and her facial features resembled her father's, but her eyes, shining brightly with intellect, reminded Sakura so much of Leo. "Yup! Thank you, grandmother!"

The older woman set her grandchild down carefully, making sure that she had both feet on the ground before letting go. "Well, you're getting to be very big, so I can't hold you in my arms for as long. Now then, would you like to help me cut the flowers?"

"Okay!"

Leona diligently watched Sakura snip the shoots of a half dozen flowers, a wet cloth ready in the girl's hand to wrap around the stems. They were lilies, normally beautiful blossoms, and the picture of simple elegance. On this day, however, they only represented mourning and the cold embrace of death.

The trio made their way down to a small fenced off area just beyond the crest of a hill, the bundle of flowers held securely in Sakura's hands. It was something that she had found years ago, after following the tracks of her husband one evening. The graves of Leo's parents.

She remembered seeing him sitting in front of two burial markers, roughly rectangular stones, weathered smooth from years of wind and rain, with inscriptions in fading lacquer. His head nodded in response to her arrival, but he didn't immediately turn around or say a word. There was a brief moment of silence, with only the whistling of a cool breeze disturbing the quiet.

"A-are these...?"

"Yes."

Sakura moved to sit by his side, placing the lantern in front of them. She rested her head on Leo's shoulder, and he placed his arm around her.

"Do you want to... t-talk about them? I guess that you're feeling pretty sad, right?"

"There's nothing to be said that I haven't already told you. They have both been dead for years. I'm not sad about anything." Leo turned to look at her. "I was just thinking. Thinking that they would have liked you. My father always told me that I needed to find someone who had the sensitive side that I clearly lacked."

"Y-you're not insensitive, just—" Sakura's protest was cut off by a rare laugh from her husband.

"Oh, please. If you are the compassionate rose, then I am the prickly thorns."

It was one of her many recollections of their time together. Despite her physical aging, her memory was still as sharp as ever. Her body's growing frailty was such as strange experience. The feeling of slowly losing fine motor control was almost liberating, even though in reality it was quite the opposite. The subtle changes gave her a better sense of the years passing by. Before, as with her siblings and family, time was just a hazy mess with no obvious reference points.

Of course, as she grew older, so did those around her, and as her hair began to streak with gray, Leo fell ill with pneumonia. It was his fifty-fifth year. Sakura did the best she could with what vestiges of power she had left, but before long the bacteria had spread to other organs, leaving him severely weakened. He held on for a few weeks longer, enough time to have his only son return home to see him, before passing in his sleep.

The burial rites were conducted by a wizened old man, with long white hair and flowing robes. He droned on and on about the untimely nature of death, and the mysterious workings of the gods. As the rituals were finished up, a pair of stony-faced young men lowered the linen-wrapped form of Sakura's husband into a hole cut into the ground, pushing and flattening a mound of dirt on top. The three men left silently, faces impassive.

Leona's normally unassailable cheerfulness was gone, replaced by an unusual solemnity for a girl of her age. Forrest was more open with his emotions, his eyes turning dark, and the sound quiet sniffling coming from him.

Sakura delicately placed the lilies into the freshly turned over soil, and the tears of heartbreak fell from above to water them.

"Goodbye, Leo."

* * *

 **I can't write children.**


End file.
